Beginning Powder Coaters Handbook
8 1/2 x 11 Paperback 69 pages
Price $24.95 Buy Me
Wow!.. I'm really excited about this book. Powder coating is a finish like paint but much thicker and more durable. Its applied as a fine electrically charged powder and then baked until it flows together. If you restore cars, motorcycles or anything else, you know that parts painted with a spray can or gun just don't hold up as well as the typical factory finish you replaced. Many purchased items come with a baked on powder coated finish and now you can do the exact same thing. The advantages are a thicker "wet look" finish that is much more durable than even the best catalyzed paints.
This exciting technology should make liquid paints obsolete and its finally ready for the home workshop. I've been researching this process for many years, but commercial equipment and the powder itself was t
oo expensive and hard to find. Now you can buy inexpensive guns starting around $50 and you can even buy a Sears Craftsman unit that doesn't need an air compressor. The specialized powders used to be unavailable in smaller quantities and were custom formulated for each use so you had to be an engineer to use them. Now you can purchase a rainbow of colors in sample quantities as little as 2 ounces. (covers about 10 square feet) and it's cheaper than some cans of spray paint. High gloss, satin finish, metallics, transparents, and even chrome like finishes are available. No more trying to simulate a factory finish with paints, just do it exactly the same way the factory did it. Now your restored car, motorcycle or whatever,.. can truly look showroom new.
The fine powder comes out of the gun electrostaticaly charged and is strongly attracted to the meta
l surface. This means hardly any overspray and no toxic solvents to breath. If there's a flaw in coverage, simply blow the powder off with an air gun and do it over. It takes less operator skill than painting and clean up is as easy as sweeping the floor. The coated parts can be baked in a kitchen oven but creative hobbyists have used toaster ovens, space heaters heat lamps and even barbeque grills (not recommended of course)
Note: I've had a personal interest in powder coating for many years and even owned a commercial machine that I took in trade. Even with the right equipment,.. the knowledge to use it and the powders themselves were not readily available. The few books published all dealt with high volume production coating and offered little practical knowledge to the hobbyist. The big factories just call in the powder manufacturers engineer and they custom formulate a powder for the customer and set up the curing process. I couldn't find less than a 50 lb box of powder and little instructions on how to use it. Now the powders are formulated for ease of use, are available in small quantities and this book will get you started fast!